Ilona Maher Shares Her Most Starstruck Moment at the Paris Olympics

It was an interaction she won't forget.
Olympic rugby star Ilona Maher poses for a photo ahead of the Paris Games.
Olympic rugby star Ilona Maher poses for a photo ahead of the Paris Games. / Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images

Ilona Maher became a quick international sensation at the 2024 Paris Olympics thanks to her relatable social media videos and the United States women's rugby team winning a bronze medal, the first Team USA rugby Olympic medal in history.

Even though Maher is now a star, she still gets starstruck, especially when meeting fellow Olympians. There was one athlete who she was really excited to meet, as many others were, too: Simone Biles. She detailed her interaction with her when speaking to Sports Illustrated recently.

“I got to trade pins with Simone Biles, and I’d never met her before, I just looked at her and I was like ‘I need one of your custom pins,’ and that was the first thing I said to her,” said Maher, who was promoting her partnership with Quaker and her love for a fiber-filled bowl of Quaker Oats and Quaker Protein Instant Oatmeal on the go. “I gave her mine and she gave me hers, and that was a really cool interaction.”

Biles, the seven-time gold medalist gymnast, had custom pins at the Paris Games. They were heart shaped with her name in the middle, and Olympians from all across the world wanted to trade with the G.O.A.T. Luckily for Maher, she got to.

Maher surely had other special moments meeting fellow Olympians in Paris last summer, but it's understandable why her interaction with Biles would stand out.


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Madison Williams
MADISON WILLIAMS

Madison Williams is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where she specializes in tennis but covers a wide range of sports from a national perspective. Before joining SI in 2022, Williams worked at The Sporting News. Having graduated from Augustana College, she completed a master’s in sports media at Northwestern University. She is a dog mom and an avid reader.